8.22.2008

A Good Reminder

My mom sent this in an email to me this morning. Made me think and it's a good reminder we all need now and then!

Too many people put off something that brings them joy justbecause they haven't thought about it, don't haveit on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to departfrom their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those people on theTitanicwho passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in aneffort to cutback. From then on, I've tried to be a little moreflexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until aftersomething had beenthawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, 'How aboutgoing to lunch in a half hour?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't.I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had knownyesterday. I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.'And my personal favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because we cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the> living-room carpet.

We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer.

One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.'

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas.

Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. Theother day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now.go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to......not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who wouldyou call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask 'How are you?' Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi'?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away.... Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.

Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND. If it comes back to you, then you'll know you h ave a circle of friends. To those I have sent this to.. I cherish our friendshipand appreciate all you do.

'Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we might as well dance!